BJP MLC Tejaswini Gowda quits party ahead of LS polls in K’taka
Bengaluru: BJP MLC Tejaswini Gowda submitted her resignation on Thursday here ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka.
Tejaswini still had three months left as an MLC but submitted her resignation to the Chairman of Karnataka Legislative Council, Basavaraj Horatti.
In her letter, the BJP MLC said that she submitted her resignation out of her own free will and has not yet revealed her next political move.
Sources said that Tejaswini is likely to join the Congress.
However, she has not yet resigned from primary membership of the BJP.
Chairman Horatti said, “MLC Tejaswini Gowda submitted her resignation today, and it has been accepted. She still had three months left as an MLC until June. As per the rules, she can submit her resignation, but it is not compulsory to cite reasons.”
Sources said that Gowda was hoping to get a BJP ticket from the Bengaluru Rural or Mysuru-Kodagu Lok Sabha constituencies.
However, BJP fielded former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda’s son-in-law C.N. Manjunath from Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha constituency, and the ticket from Mysuru-Kodagu Lok Sabha constituency was given to royal scion Yaduveer Wadiyar.
Reacting to the political development, Opposition leader R. Ashoka said that the BJP was not at all concerned with Tejaswini Gowda quitting the party.
“She (Tejaswini Gowda) was with Congress earlier and later joined the BJP. We had given her the post of an MLC. Her term is nearing its end, and she has submitted her resignation at this time,” Ashoka noted.
Tejaswini Gowda had defeated former Prime Minister Deve Gowda in her first Lok Sabha election from Kanakapura (now Bengaluru Rural) Lok Sabha constituency on a Congress ticket in 2004.